The NTC Promenade at Liberty Station in Point Loma will come alive for three days this weekend during the inaugural edition of San Diego’s newest Christmas spectacular, dubbed “Christmas Tabernacle.” Between Dec. 16 and Dec. 18, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, visitors will be treated to a multitude of Christmas-themed happenings. Offering up something for just about everybody, options will range from a full, onstage production of “The Nutcracker” by the San Diego Ballet to reindeer petting and from horse-and-carriage rides to a shopping village. Organized by Jamie Sutton and Linda Lopez of Pacific Event Productions, the full-scale event is solely about the holiday tradition. “We want to bring Christmas back to San Diego,” said Sutton. “So many events — in the world in general — have taken the Christmas out of Christmas. We wanted to bring it back and start a new ‘old tradition’ for the area.” There will be two stages set up during the holiday gala, featuring performers from several local churches and schools. The main stage will feature the event’s headliners, like ventriloquist Kevin Johnson, crooner David Patrone, the Master Chorale Singers with the Westwind Brass and the Mariachi Real with folklorico dancers. Notably, many of San Diego’s performing arts groups will be heavily involved, including the San Diego Ballet, The Cygnet Theatre and the FBOC Irish School of Dance, along with the House of Blues Gospel Brunch Choir. “There’s so much going on it’s almost like a theme park that we put up for four days (including a VIP preview night on Dec. 15),” Sutton said. “One thing we’re doing that is pretty unique is that we’ll have a full, outdoor living nativity scene. We’re going to have about 20 actors from Cornerstone Church, which is helping us to put that on. So we’ll have live actors and live animals, sheep, donkeys and camels and so on.” Meanwhile, the Santa’s Village area will be complete with a snow hill for kids to go sledding. “Next to that, we have live reindeer,” said Sutton. “So there are a lot of really unique things here that you’re not going to see every day.” Sutton said he hopes this event will find a place in San Diego’s heart like other family-friendly holiday events around town. He said he hopes for up to 35,000 visitors throughout the weekend. “We want it to be kind of like ‘December Nights’ is for Balboa Park, where you know it’s an annual thing and you kind of attach it to the venue,” he said. “That’s the sort of thing we want to see happen with this, where it’ll just be known as the annual thing happening down there at Liberty Station.” Sutton said he is thrilled with the opportunity to bring an event like this to area residents. “I’m a San Diego native,” he said. “Before this, I had a tourism company, where we did magazines for tourists and I just loved being able to share the city that I grew up in, the city that I love.” He said he sees the event as a way to continue that San Diego feel-good feeling. “Of course, No. 1, the point of this is to create a Christmas event, but second to that is to be able to see this community come together in a new tradition,” Sutton said. “Just having friends and family there together, enjoying themselves, sipping hot chocolate, sitting on Santa’s lap. Just that whole experience, to me, is what makes it worth it.” He admits there is hard work involved in putting “Christmas Tabernacle” together, but he said he is happy with the results. “It’s been a full-time project since last November,” he said. “Even people that are close to us, we kind of tell them what’s going on, but I still don’t think they get it. They will when they show up though. When they get out there, they’ll be amazed.” Christmas Tabernacle takes place beginning at 11 a.m. daily, Friday, Dec. 16 through Sunday, Dec. 18, at the NTC Promenade of Liberty Station, 2640 Historic Decatur Road. All ages. For more information, visit www.AChristmasTabernacle.com.